I received a comment on a recent blog (Who’s fault is it?), and so I wanted to respond on today’s blog. Comment: Do you think that it’s possible that God sometimes inflicts suffering to instruct us? Hear me out. The curse of the ground was to bring thorns into the work of man, to remind him that he’s the cause of his own suffering. And the animal sacrifices instituted by God in the beginning: they cost us something. It’s a little pain to show that we...
Read MoreWonderfully Made
Note: If you haven’t yet heard, we are excited to announce that we are pregnant and expecting our first child in June, 2014! We praise God for answering our prayers and giving us the blessing of children! There is something mysterious and wonderful about having a baby growing inside of you. He or she is about the size of a pea pod now, and it still seems incredibly surreal. Pregnancy still felt like something my imagination had conjured up, until we got to have an...
Read MoreGod of the Impossible
Recently at a small group Bible study we attend, we were studying the book of Jonah. Through the study the fact came up that some people say Jonah contains so many remarkable (some might say miraculous) elements, that it can’t be taken literally. This subject naturally connected the conversation to Genesis. We discussed the fact that many people have a hard time believing that such things as a man being swallowed – and rescued – by a great fish, or God creating the...
Read MoreGod Most High
I sat down today to write about having a high view of God. “This should be easy,” I thought to myself. “After all, there is so much to say about how big, how awesome God is, it should be no big deal to write that down.” I was wrong. It is a daunting task indeed to mentally plumb the depths and scale the heights of the greatness of God. I invite you to take a little trip with me as I trace my thoughts on this subject. Let’s consider…. …The human body – full of...
Read MoreCreation Clubs In a Town Near You?
We love how God, in His amazing sovereignty, directs our steps before we have any idea of what’s going to happen. We experienced that recently when we planned a last-minute trip to California to witness my two youngest brothers being baptized. We sent out some emails and contacted several people to see if there was any interest, or opportunity, to do some speaking and sharing about our work with AOI. It has been amazing to see how God has opened doors for us! One...
Read MoreFamily Hits Road With Creation
After working so hard teaching and writing, it’s always good to know that your work is having an impact on the lives of others, and that they are taking the material learned from you and passing it on to others. Recently we received an encouraging testimony from a woman in Montana. She wrote: Quite a few years ago [my husband] and I were at a marriage retreat in Colorado – over by Horn Creek at Hermit Basin. [We] were edified by the Creation Series. We have...
Read MoreWho are the Marianis?
Hello AOI Followers, we are new on staff at AOI and we wanted to introduce ourselves in our first blog post. We are Brian and Aimee Mariani and here are our brief testimonies of how God has worked in our lives in exciting ways and brought us to this position at AOI! That is actually a picture of us jumping into service with AOI at a Creation Boot Camp at Camp Redcloud during the last week of June. Brian: Hey guys, first off, I grew up in Bloomington, Illinois and was...
Read MoreCamp IdRaHaJe West – Week 2
Marilyn and I spent another week at Camp IdRaHaJe West above Paonia, CO. This week we taught Creation to the Middle School Camp (6th – 9th Grade) of 60 campers, 12 counselors, and numerous other staff. We had another very exciting week. As at the Junior Camp, we had a mixture of church-going kids, non-churched kids, and kids coming from churches where the Bible is not taught. The Holy Spirit was really evident at this camp …we had 30 campers put their faith and trust in...
Read MoreCongratulations Sandra
We were truly blessed recently in celebrating the high school graduation of our daughter, Sandra. The years have passed so quickly. She was a very diligent student in her homeschool studies and we have enjoyed educating her these past six years. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the fellowship of family and friends attending the open house. We were even blessed to have some family travel all the way from Minnesota for the event. Sandra plans to attend Cornerstone...
Read MoreCamp IdRaHaJe West
Marilyn and I spent last week at Camp IdRaHaJe West above Paonia, CO., where we taught Creation to a Junior Camp (2nd – 6th Grade) of 56 campers, 12 counselors, and numerous other staff. IdRaHaJe stands for I’d Rather Have Jesus. It was an exciting week, where we had the blessing of being able to teach two 1 ½ hour chapels a day. The campers were very enthusiastic … they were actually running to chapel, and coming 10 to 15 minutes early! After the first chapel, some...
Read MoreSide Trip Excursion
Too many times when we are on the speaking circuit, we just point the nose of the vehicle to get from point A to point B without seeing what else is around us. This time on our way back from speaking in Las Vegas, we had an extra day to explore! We got off the interstate in Utah and took the scenic route back to Grand Junction, camped overnight, and got in a good hike. Yes, interstate highways do afford some good scenery, but there is so much more out there if we take the...
Read MoreA Rose is Still a Rose
The roses around our house are now in full bloom reminding me of an article I recently read from Creation Moments – A Rose Is Still A Rose. Man has been breeding roses for quite a long time. The Chinese began breeding roses about 4,000 years ago. Rose breeders around the world have produced over 4,000 variations of roses that vary in size, color, frequency of bloom and scent. Over 25 different scents have been developed! Walter Lammerts, a leading world authority on...
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Friends - Richard's Life was Changed!! - And this is why he is leading AOI's Colorado Family Camp! Join us July 30 - Aug 4 - conta.cc/3X4JroB pic.twitter.com/u8j1AP1Pmu
